Show Notes
1 Samuel 31
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Amen.
[00:00:10] Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading and preaching of his word, Our Heavenly Father. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and ask that you would bless us as we come to hear your word, as we come to hear of our Savior, as he is given to us in the Old Testament, as his kingdom is prefigured in the kingdom of old under the Old Covenant, as we see the contrast between him and the great King Saul.
[00:00:47] Lord, we ask that as our hearts are moved by your word, you would strengthen in us the will, the desire, the good heart to follow you, to obey you as our King, to not be afraid, to trust you for everything, and to give our lives fully to you, you who are the rescuer of all men, the one who establishes the kingdom of your redeemed throughout all the earth. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:25] You may be seated.
[00:01:27] And let's turn our attention to 1st Samuel, chapter 31.
[00:02:06] So in Samuel 31, we come to the tragic death of Saul and his sons, the ending of of his reign, as was prophesied by Samuel most recently in chapter 28.
[00:02:23] This morning we'll be doing somewhat of a survey of first Samuel, looking at different things, recalling to mind things that we've thought about as we've gone through this book together.
[00:02:36] So I'd encourage you to have your Bibles.
[00:02:40] It might be helpful to you if you're able to skip around and follow along. If not, that's fine too.
[00:02:47] Listening will serve you well.
[00:02:50] Let's hear God's word now from 1 Samuel 31.
[00:02:57] Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
[00:03:05] And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malkishua, the sons of Saul.
[00:03:16] The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.
[00:03:24] Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.
[00:03:34] But his armor bearer would not, for he feared greatly.
[00:03:38] Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.
[00:03:43] And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
[00:03:50] Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men on the same day together.
[00:04:01] And when the men of Israel, who were on the other side of the Valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead.
[00:04:10] They abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
[00:04:17] The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
[00:04:24] So they cut off his head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.
[00:04:36] They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Sha'. On.
[00:04:44] But when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all these valiant men arose and they went all night and they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bashan and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
[00:05:09] This ends the reading of God's word and he bless it to us.
[00:05:20] So this is the end of 1st Samuel, the end of a book that introduces the kings of Israel and the first great king of Israel.
[00:05:33] I mean, remember, the book begins with a family, a particular family, with some conflict with Hannah and her husband, Elizabeth Elkanah, her lack of sons, conflict between the wives, and the Lord's working in the midst of that Lord's working in the midst of an individual family and an individual womb to bring forth a son whose name was Samuel. God hears, and Samuel was called to serve the Lord.
[00:06:07] And he did, becoming in some ways a kind of judge, a kind of king. Before Israel decided she wanted an official king, one like the nations, one Samuel was not happy about, the Lord was not happy about. But the Lord gave anyway.
[00:06:25] And the Lord gave not because Israel wasn't supposed to have a king and he just gave up and gave in, but because Israel was supposed to have a king. The problem is they wanted the wrong kind of king and the wrong kind of way.
[00:06:44] The Lord raised up Saul before Saul was raised up. Though in chapter four, the Philistines enter into the picture. And we see right away from the very beginning of this book there's conflict, serious conflict going on between the Philistines and Israel. The Philistines in Israel, sometimes one winning, sometimes the other. The Lord always in control of everything.
[00:07:12] The Philistines begin by capturing the ark in this time of sin.
[00:07:18] And eventually Israel is able to gain back that ark.
[00:07:24] Saul is anointed king through some unusual circumstances.
[00:07:29] He wasn't expecting that or wanting it. In fact, when he's called king and installed as king, we find him hiding.
[00:07:37] He's chosen by law in front of all Israel. And when they find him, and he's a tall man, he's hiding in the baggage, and he's called out, and he's called to be king. And at first he's successful.
[00:07:52] The story of Saul begins with Saul's with great success. In chapter 11, we read about the Ammonites, another people group that is going against Israel.
[00:08:06] In particular, they go against a place called Jabesh Gilead, which is how First Samuel also ends with them.
[00:08:14] The beginning of Saul's work begins and his work as a king begins with the salvation of Jabesh Gilead.
[00:08:24] If you go to chapter 11, you see what happens.
[00:08:27] Nahash the Ammonite, this is verse one, went and besieged this town, Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh Gilead say to Nahash, make a treaty with us and we will serve you. Basically, they've decided to give up. They've decided to give up. They feel they are outgunned and they are going to make a treaty and become the servants of this Ammonite king.
[00:08:51] Nahash, the Ammonite says to them, verse two, on this condition, I will make a treaty with you. And that I gouge out all your right eyes. And thus being bring disgrace on all Israel.
[00:09:02] He's already got them. They're already giving up. But he doesn't just want that. He wants this inhumane thing to happen. And he wants to embarrass them and hurt them and bring disgrace on all Israel.
[00:09:19] Now in our chapter this morning in 1st Samuel 31, we. We read that these men and the city there, they fasted seven days, right?
[00:09:29] That corresponds to another seven that we have here in chapter 11.
[00:09:34] In verse three, the elders of Jabesh Gilead, they go to Nahash and they say, give us seven days respite that we may send messengers throughout all the territory of Israel. Then if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves to you.
[00:09:50] When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people. And all the people wept aloud, skipping, summarizing a little bit of what happened next happens next. Saul basically raises up an army really fast. This great leadership, this great king, raises up this group of this. This mighty army of Israel. And they go and they save Jabesh Gilead.
[00:10:20] They attack the Ammonites they win the day.
[00:10:24] They strike down the Ammonites, and they are scattered, and the people are happy, and they see Saul as their king.
[00:10:37] So a good start.
[00:10:41] First Samuel, then 31, and bringing up the work of the men of Jabesh and Gilead and pulling his decapitated body off the wall and that of his sons and bringing them back to Israel.
[00:10:57] Saving Saul in some ways, even after his death from this disgrace, this embarrassment, this dishonor, calls us to remember how things began.
[00:11:10] The end of the story makes us think a little bit about the beginning of the story. And we ask questions like, what happened?
[00:11:18] How did we go from Saul, anointed by the Lord, working for Israel, calling together mighty armies, defeating the people, saving the people, restoring honor, establishing the kingdom of God. How do we go from that to this?
[00:11:36] The Philistines routing him, the Philistines destroying him, his sons, his whole army. So much so that instead of the people holding the land that God had called them into, they're now fleeing the land.
[00:11:51] This is the opposite of what's supposed to happen, the opposite of the work that Joshua, for example, was involved in.
[00:11:59] They come into the land they're fleeing, and the Philistines are coming into those cities. What happened?
[00:12:08] If you look at first Samuel, chapter 12, after this battle that I described with the Ammonites and Saul's great work there, Samuel gives this farewell address, and he warns them about the king.
[00:12:22] He talks about the office of kingship, and he talks about the relationship of that king to God.
[00:12:32] And he establishes for us this very clear truth, that for the people of God, that relationship matters a lot.
[00:12:43] It's essential.
[00:12:45] He says this in verse 13.
[00:12:49] And now behold the king whom you have chosen and for whom you have asked, behold, the Lord has set a king over you.
[00:12:56] If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord.
[00:13:05] And if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord, it will be well if you and the king follow the Lord. If you obey the Lord, if you follow the commandment of the Lord, it will be well.
[00:13:21] Verse 15. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
[00:13:33] This is the principle that Samuel establishes or sets down and teaches here.
[00:13:41] So if we ask what happened, we have our answer, don't we?
[00:13:46] How is it that Israel's king and his people are being routed, destroyed, overwhelmed? Is it because of the Philistines tactical brilliance.
[00:13:58] Is it because Saul made a few errors in his war gaming or didn't rehearse enough?
[00:14:04] No, this is not about human earthly power.
[00:14:08] This is about their relationship with the Lord.
[00:14:12] A relationship that is marked by disobedience and sin.
[00:14:18] The king was a disobedient king.
[00:14:23] That's what went wrong.
[00:14:25] That's what went wrong.
[00:14:31] There's a few things that we can point to in particular.
[00:14:34] And as we do so, we can think about our own lives and the ways that we ourselves are disobedient to our king, to King Jesus, to God who rules over us and his kingdom.
[00:14:46] And we can also think about the contrast of these particular things with Jesus, who did the opposite of these things and who established as us in his kingdom forever.
[00:14:58] What did Saul do wrong? What do we do wrong?
[00:15:02] One thing we can mention is that he was afraid of men.
[00:15:06] From the beginning when he was hiding in the baggage, to later when the Philistines were attacking and he and his army were hiding in caves.
[00:15:16] Jonathan decides to go out and fight that battle. Or when he's hiding and scared, when Goliath is attacking God's people and David says, what is going on here?
[00:15:28] And David shows courage to his fear. Later in chapter, most recently in chapter 28, just a few chapters back, we read in verse five, when Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. And what did he do?
[00:15:49] He went to a medium, a witch, she's sometimes called to try to call up the spirit.
[00:16:00] And she calls up the spirit of Samuel, who tells Saul exactly what he had told him already.
[00:16:09] Fear, the fear of men, the fear of Goliath, the fear of the Philistines, the fear of David, the fear of losing fame, the fear of not being popular, the fear of being chosen. Fear. Fear. Fear is constantly ruling in Saul's life.
[00:16:27] And it's tragic to see.
[00:16:30] It's tragic not only because it's bad and sad, but. But he had so much.
[00:16:36] He's the king, he has great armies, he is obviously powerful, he has wealth and men. And most importantly, much more important than that, infinitely more important than that, he has the Lord God on his side, who said, I will protect you, I will keep you, I will do all that you need to do.
[00:17:00] The Lord who is able to route enemies with almost nothing and sometimes nothing he uses. Throughout the book of First Samuel, we've seen the single stone of David, or the one sword of Jonathan and his armor bearer, or just a few men of a small company, many Others being left behind to fight, as we saw recently with David and the Amalekites, a giant army.
[00:17:27] Over and over again we see that the Lord is not dependent on horses and chariots and sharp swords or money or fame. It doesn't matter.
[00:17:37] It matters nothing.
[00:17:40] The Lord can work, The Lord can save.
[00:17:43] The Lord can walk through us or walk with us, even through the valley of the shadow of death. And we can say, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
[00:17:55] Saul had nothing to worry about, but he was constantly worried. He was constantly afraid of his own people, of his son, of those who loved him, of those who were loyal to him, of those who were against him.
[00:18:11] Constantly, constantly afraid because he was disregarding the Lord. That's why he was afraid. It wasn't just a personality flaw or something like that. His fear came out of his disobedience. His fear came out of his refusal to believe.
[00:18:30] His fear came out of his lack of faith and his not trusting the Lord.
[00:18:38] Well, this fear, which was in him, which made him make all kinds of bad decisions, corresponds to another fear. He was afraid of man, but he did not fear God.
[00:18:52] This great King Saul owed his obedience to the king of kings.
[00:19:00] Israel is established not as a. Not ultimately as a kingdom under a man, but as a kingdom under God.
[00:19:11] Saul and David, the kings that would fall, these are just undershepherds, vice, regents, ministers, people called to administer the work of God in the name of the people, not to establish their own rules and their own ways. This is how the kingdom of God would be established.
[00:19:32] But Saul did not fear his own king.
[00:19:38] Saul did not look to the Lord. It's the craziest thing to be afraid of men who can do nothing to you when God is on your side, and then to not be afraid of God, who is the one who can take both body and soul.
[00:19:55] Of course, this is not new. We see this all the time, even in our own hearts. What are some of the ways we see Saul not fearing God?
[00:20:04] Well, when he's told to destroy the Amalekites, he's told to destroy them, to destroy all their things, to destroy the king. And he decides to not do that.
[00:20:17] He's not going to obey his orders. He's not going to follow through. Why? Because he has better ideas. Because he wants his own way. He thinks his way is best. So he's going to keep Agag for himself. He's going to make some kind of alliance with him. He. He's going to keep the best of the sheep and the goats. Around.
[00:20:37] He doesn't wait for Samuel. When Samuel tells him to wait for him, he seeks out this medium, the medium herself. Remember back in 28, says Saul kicked us all out.
[00:20:51] Are you trying to get me in trouble by. She doesn't know it's Saul yet. Are you trying to get me in trouble by asking this thing? And Saul promises that she won't get in trouble.
[00:21:01] Why is Saul seeking a medium against his own command, against the Lord's command? Because he doesn't fear the Lord. He doesn't wait on the Lord.
[00:21:12] There's a lot of other examples.
[00:21:15] Another we can mention, and then we'll move on, is that he didn't fear the Lord in that he seems to refuse to learn from the discipline of the Lord.
[00:21:28] There's a pattern here in Saul's life, a pattern over and over again in which people speak to him. The Lord speaks clearly to him. He's given instruction from prophets, from examples, from Providence, from the Word of God. He's told these various things and he doesn't listen.
[00:21:50] And then even when the Lord presses consequences on him, hard consequences, difficult, terrible, tear jerking things, he doesn't respond.
[00:22:01] Even when his life is preserved two times by David who had an opportunity to kill him. And he sees this amazing God centered loyalty in this one whom he calls a son.
[00:22:14] He sees this loyalty and this uprightness and this godliness. His own life is preserved. He receives this great mercy. He even repents sort of.
[00:22:26] He says, what have I done? He cries, he's upset.
[00:22:32] He stops pursuing David for a little bit.
[00:22:36] But that the center of his heart seems unchanged.
[00:22:42] And even here in his final battle, he.
[00:22:53] We don't see him giving himself to the Lord.
[00:22:58] We don't see him repenting, we don't see him calling out.
[00:23:02] And we see the final act that he does is an act of disobedience as he falls on his own sword.
[00:23:15] He failed to learn from the discipline of the Lord. He failed to learn from the lessons of the Lord.
[00:23:20] He would not fear God.
[00:23:24] Last thing. Well, maybe two more quick things.
[00:23:28] Yeah, we can do it.
[00:23:30] He was jealous, right?
[00:23:33] He was so jealous.
[00:23:36] Saul was afraid of man.
[00:23:38] He did not fear God and he was jealous.
[00:23:43] His fear of man, the flip side of it, was a pride in him.
[00:23:48] A pride in him that wanted so desperately, that popularity that from the moment that David's victories were becoming obvious and people were happy about it, he started to get upset.
[00:24:07] We read this, we read this after David defeats Goliath and these great songs are sung on, these songs in which David has. Saul has. This is chapter 18, verse 17. Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And then verse 8 says, and Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him.
[00:24:33] You can imagine, right, the king going up to his quarters or into his throne room, and he. He's just mad.
[00:24:39] He's so upset and he can't let it go. And he's rehearsing it over and over in his mind. He's ruminating on it, he's chewing on it, and he's thinking, this isn't fair.
[00:24:52] Why are they saying this about him? Why is it not me?
[00:24:56] We read in verse nine, and Saul eyed David from that day on.
[00:25:02] You remember back when we thought about this passage, there's a whole different perspective. Saul could have taken on this, right? Instead of just saying, they like him more than they like me.
[00:25:13] First of all, what does it matter?
[00:25:15] The Lord is the one who matters. It's the Lord's pleasure. It's the Lord's anointing. You have a job to do which is totally not dependent on your popularity. The Lord will uphold you.
[00:25:31] Nevertheless, he eyes David from that day on.
[00:25:34] What could he have done instead when he heard the women singing to one another as they celebrated? Saul has struck down his thousands. David has his ten thousands. He could have thought about the victory of the Lord in battle.
[00:25:47] Great is thy faithfulness, O God. You have struck down our enemy and you have set us free. He could have thought about David and this one that God has just raised up, who is promising to be Saul's servant.
[00:26:02] He could have looked to David and he could have given praise to God for the work that God was doing through this young man.
[00:26:09] He could have looked and seen God's work in his hands, not only in himself, but in his people, in this boy in Israel as a whole.
[00:26:18] Here the people are celebrating. We read in verse 6 of chapter 18, as they were coming home when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities singing and dancing, to meet King Saul.
[00:26:33] To meet King Saul with tambourines and songs of joy and with musical instruments. I don't think they were there because they were more happy with David than they were with him. They came to meet the king and the king's servant.
[00:26:48] Saul could have seen it that way.
[00:26:51] He could have seen it as the people were giving it. But instead he took it in the worst possible way. He got super jealous, and he wouldn't let it go.
[00:27:02] He held this anger in his heart.
[00:27:04] And the more David succeeded, the more Saul grew jealous of him. And that anger led to a whole bunch of other problems. Lack of self control, recklessness, murder.
[00:27:19] He breaks apart his own relationship with his son Jonathan. He's destroying all kinds of things. The people that are closest to him, the people that are most loyal to him. He's just imploding.
[00:27:31] Over what?
[00:27:33] Jealousy, anger.
[00:27:38] This is what Saul did wrong.
[00:27:42] He was afraid of men, jealous and angry about David.
[00:27:47] He did not fear God.
[00:27:54] And Saul's behavior and his heart are not unique to Saul, are they?
[00:28:00] This is the same things that we do on a day to day basis.
[00:28:05] These are the same things that are in our own heart. When we look at other people and we say, that's not fair and why is this? And why don't I have that? It's the same thing. It does the same stuff.
[00:28:16] You don't happen to be king over Israel. Maybe. Thank God, the consequences are serious when he puts us in places of authority and leadership. But that's something we all have in a way, isn't it? In our families, among our friends, in our society.
[00:28:35] We have things that we do, jobs that we hold, people we influence.
[00:28:40] How do we do them?
[00:28:42] Do we do them under our great King, with obedience to him, trusting him, looking to him? Or do we do him, eyeing the people around us, fearing our own position and not trusting God?
[00:28:59] Saul's story, I think, reminds us of two things.
[00:29:06] It reminds us maybe lots of things. I'll mention two.
[00:29:11] One is to have a certain sense of mournfulness about our world and the sin that's in it, including in ourselves.
[00:29:21] When we see the effect of the poison of sin in our hearts, we ought to bemoan it. We ought to cry out before the Lord and say, save me Lord, from myself, from this world.
[00:29:33] And we also ought to see in Saul, as in his office, in particular as king, our great need for one to lead us.
[00:29:45] Who is different than this?
[00:29:48] Who does fear the Lord, who does follow his commandments, who doesn't flee when things get hard, who is fearful, faithful to God at all times and in every way, who is not afraid of man, who doesn't get jealous, who is perfect in every way, and who can lead us in that kind of life, in a life of faith, in a life of trust, in a life of obedience and a life of constantly looking to our Lord the King.
[00:30:21] And that's who Jesus is.
[00:30:24] God himself, seeing and recognizing and showing to us the incapability of mankind to rule. Himself becomes a man.
[00:30:36] God becomes our king. And he does Everything that we have failed to do.
[00:30:43] He establishes this kingdom of redemption and he establishes it in his name and ultimately through his own death, as Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, as he takes on humanity, steps into this role of king and dies to receive the full penalty of our sin so that he could rise again and rule and reign over us forever.
[00:31:18] Jesus establishes this victory for us on the cross when the record of our debt and all its legal demands are nailed to that cross.
[00:31:30] On top of that, the Lord, in His work on the cross, puts all his enemies, the greatest enemies of all, Satan himself, and all the evil ones, the spiritual powers of darkness. He. He puts them, the Scriptures say, to open shame, embarrasses them, shows them their weakness, their futility in their disobedience against God the King. That's what Jesus does for us on the cross.
[00:31:58] We're not even at the resurrection yet. That's what he does for us on the cross. And then he rises from the dead, proving and vindicating that glorious work, and ascends into heaven where he sits down at the right hand as we confess this morning of God the Father Almighty, where He will continue to rule until he comes to judge the living and the dead.
[00:32:23] Our King, our perfect king, our glorious King, our saving King, who, as we read earlier in Romans 8, saved us while we were still sinners.
[00:32:39] This is one of the amazing things about Jesus kingship.
[00:32:43] He doesn't just say, obey the Lord and God will be with you. He says, God is with you, and now I'm working in you so that you will obey the Lord.
[00:32:58] He makes us citizens fit for his kingdom.
[00:33:03] He begins in his work of salvation as he unites us to Himself.
[00:33:08] He not only gives us this work of justifying us, of removing our guilt, of imputing to us his righteousness, but he also does this work of sanctification where he's preparing us and healing us and growing our hearts to be more and more in love with him and beloved. One day, our great King, your King, will come again and you will rise from from the dead and you will be glorious and you will enter into this kingdom of glory forever, where there will be no enemies of the Lord to threaten us anymore, spiritual or temporal, where every tear will be wiped from our eyes. All the things in our hearts, all the fleshly parts of us will be entirely gone, where there will be no more sin, no more jealousy, no more dissension, no more confusion, but only and always fearing and loving the Lord, forever giving ourselves fully to him who loves us and has loved us before the foundation of the world.
[00:34:21] The eternal love of God being poured out to us eternally in the Son and in the power of the Spirit.
[00:34:32] Jesus did not finish poorly.
[00:34:40] Jesus did not give up and take his own life.
[00:34:45] Jesus freely gave his life so that we could live him.
[00:34:53] Jesus, our great King, is the author and the perfecter of our faith, of our salvation, because he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
[00:35:08] Let's put our faith in him, let's trust him and let's now pray and ask that God would bless us in him.
[00:35:18] Almighty God, we come to you in the name of our great King Jesus, who lived and died for us so that we might die and live in him.
[00:35:27] Lord, we confess the greatness of his work, the perfection of his work, as we reflect on the many failures of the kings of men.
[00:35:40] Even those kings established by you. Even the greatest kings, Lord, have so far fallen short of the work that is necessary for us to be saved.
[00:35:54] Lord.
[00:35:55] So we look to Jesus and we thank you that though we were poor, though we were broken, though we were not glorious, though we were routed, although we were enslaved by the evil one, you have broken into the kingdom of darkness, right, rescued us and brought us into the kingdom of your beloved Son.
[00:36:16] And now we have the very spirit of God, the anointing of the kingdom in which you call us, a kingdom of priests, in which you have established us as those who rule alongside Jesus under him and with his glory shining in us and through us.
[00:36:39] Lord, we ask that this good news, the great, loving, forgiving, gracious work of God, would be at work more and more in our lives so that we might not commit these sins.
[00:36:51] We ask you now, Lord, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps for perhaps yet again, that you would help us to not be afraid of men, to not desire fame and popularity, to not need beyond all things or above all things, the things of this world, power or wealth or good looks or education or all these things. Lord, we ask that you would help us not to desire these above you.
[00:37:25] Help us instead of rejecting you, to follow you, to fear you, to trust you, to look to you for all things.
[00:37:35] You tell us that you look over after the smallest of birds, little blades of grass, and that you will most certainly look after us, the ones whom you made in your image and are now conforming to the image of the risen King, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:37:58] In these things, Lord, we ask particularly that you would forgive us for the sins of jealousy, for the sins of anger and lack of self control.
[00:38:09] The sins of foolishness, of murder, the sins of all the different shortcuts we take to get the things that we think we need.
[00:38:23] Forgive us, Lord, and calm our hearts.
[00:38:27] Help us to see the strength that we have in you, the eternal inheritance that we have in you, the joy we have in you, the life we have in you, the spirit that we have.
[00:38:43] Lord, we ask that you would bless us in all these things and that you would continue to gather people through this good news into your kingdom, and that together we might shine brightly with that work of the Lord, and that you might be our ruler now and forever.
[00:39:05] We pray this in Jesus name, amen.
